Back in September I took the liberty of starting a thread inviting all to pray for the election. Well, that didn't work out so well, maybe. But I am am still asking us to consider ADDING something to our daily prayers. I know you all are busy and I suspect many of you spend a good deal of time in prayer anyway. I do not seek to bind burdens on anyone's back. Though prayer sometimes involves teeth-gritting, that should not be the main theme! The main themes should always be hope, joy, and gratitude, IMHO. But the prayer of a...

Patriarch Kirill, the head of Russia’s Orthodox church and a long-term ally of President Vladimir Putin, on Sunday urged the Kremlin to be moderate in new legislation seeking stricter punishment for religious offences. The pro-Kremlin United Russia party proposed the law introducing prison terms for religious offences after a protest against Putin’s increasingly close ties with the Church by punk band Pussy Riot in Moscow’s main cathedral last year. Two members of the band were jailed for the protest.

The Prime Minister has been warned that he risks opening the door to the persecution of Catholics, writes Cristina OdoneThe pink complexion of the sportsman, the jowls of the bon viveur and an inscrutable gaze that only Hilary Mantel could decipher: Henry VIII and David Cameron have much in common. More than 1,000 Catholic clerics – bishops, priests, abbots – agree. They wrote to this newspaper on Saturday to warn the Prime Minister that he risked copying Henry’s example: by tampering with marriage he would open the door to the persecution of Catholics. Once gay marriage is legal, secularists can...

Far from protecting hard-fought freedoms, modern human rights culture is being used to suppress liberty of conscience and restrain Christianity, he said. In one of his biggest addresses of the year, Benedict XVI said a false concept of human rights had gripped the western world. As a result, he said, religion is being marginalised and symbols of faith, such as the cross, are being treated with growing hostility. He also singled out how, he said, some charities and schools are limiting the freedom of Christians to practise or express their faith and spoke of the need for “conscientious objectors” who...

A Christian high school teacher in Cheektowaga, N.Y., is suing her employer after district officials told her to take personal signs and religious items out of her classroom. Joelle Silver, a science educator who has been working in the Cheektowaga Central School District for seven years, decided to take legal action after receiving a letter (read it here) asking her to comply with officials’ request.

RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said on a radio program Wednesday that going to jail may be an effective way to protest a mandate tied to ObamaCare that requires employers to provide contraceptive coverage. Appearing on on Iowa conservative radio host Steve Deace's syndicated show, the Republican gubernatorial candidate said civil disobedience is one way to attack the federal health care law's requirement. The so-called contraceptive mandate is now being challenged in a federal lawsuit by the Hobby Lobby stores. The company is primarily concerned about coverage for the morning-after pill, which some consider an abortion-causing drug....

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys sent a letter to the United States Military Academy this week explaining why, contrary to the complaints of a group that advocates for church-state separation, they believe invocations should continue to be said at certain West Point events. "The First Amendment allows public officials to acknowledge our nation's religious heritage," said David Hacker, ADF senior legal counsel, in a statement. "Since the Revolution, the U.S. Army has offered soldiers the opportunity to hear invocations. West Point has continued this tradition since its founding in 1802. Anti-religious groups with misguided ideas about the First Amendment should not...

Less Americans believe homosexuality is a sin than a little more than a year ago, according to a survey completed by a faith-based research group just 14 months after a similar study. Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, said the reason for the substantial shift is most likely the result of President Barack Obama's "evolved" view of gay marriage. Stetzer points out that halfway between the two polls Obama changed his pre-election (prior to first term) position concerning gay marriage. "There is little doubt that the President's evolution on homosexuality probably impacted the evolution of cultural values," Stetzer states in...

More than 1,000 priests have signed a letter voicing alarm that same-sex marriage could threaten religious freedom in a way last seen during “centuries of persecution” of Roman Catholics in England.In one of the biggest joint letters of its type ever written, they raise fears that their freedom to practise and speak about their faith will be “severely” limited and dismiss Government reassurances as "meaningless". They even liken David Cameron’s moves to redefine marriage to those of Henry VIII, whose efforts to secure a divorce from Katherine of Aragon triggered centuries of bloody upheaval between church and state. They claim...

Everything is relative. So as you cut yourself loose from the Law of God, in any concept whatsoever, you also soon are cutting yourself loose from a strict constructionism and each ruling is to be seen as an arbitrary choice by a group of people as to what they may honestly think is for the sociological good of the community, of the country, for the given moment. Now, along with that is the fact that the courts are increasingly making law and thus we find that the legislatures' powers are increasingly diminished in relationship to the power of the courts....

A Malaysian Sultan has issued a fatwa prohibiting non-Muslims from using the word "Allah" in Arabic. The Sultan of the Malaysian state of Selangor, Sharafuddin Idris Shah, issued the prohibition on Tuesday, according to the Lebanon Debate newspaper. Malaysian media have reported that the prohibition has been put in place by the Islamic leader because it is a "sacred word," and should be reserved exclusively for Muslims, according to MidEast Christian News. The sultan has ordered the Islamic Council of Selangor and the Islamic Affairs Department in the state to take strict action against all groups that question the fatwa...

The tragic Newtown shooting has led to renewed calls for gun control by Conservative and Reform Jewish leaders, who have highlighted this as a religious issue (“As Jews, we must act against gun violence — now,” op-ed, Dec. 21). These emotional reactions are understandable, but their one-sided presentation of Jewish tradition fails to distinguish between the requirements of the real world and our hopes for the messianic age. Jewish tradition speaks both to defense preparation and the need for_training and safety with the best tools available, firearms, which are susceptible to misuse in the wrong hands. Exodus 13:10 tells us,...

Along with citizens throughout our nation and beyond, I was anguished by the death of the beautiful, innocent children of Sandy Hook Elementary School. In the wake of the shootings, I was gripped first with deep grief and then with a powerful wave of activist energy. I hoped that this most horrific incident of gun violence would shake the nation from complacency and stir the adoption of sensible gun control legislation. I believed that all over the country, parents of all stripes and persuasions — including gun owners — would recognize that a civilized nation cannot continue to allow policies...

Following controversial comments alleging that President Barack Obama will potentially rely upon “executive orders” to tackle gun control, Vice President Joe Biden held an unannounced meeting with faith leaders on Wednesday where he purportedly reiterated the same point. The nation’s second-in-command and his gun violence team discussed the issues surrounding firearms and the country’s most recent crises with 12 national faith leaders in an effort to urge them to “help find common sense solutions.” During the event, Biden reportedly echoed what he told reporters earlier in the day — that the Obama administration will be taking two tracks to curb...

It is generally held that Catholic Social Teaching begins with Pope Leo XIII’s masterly encyclical, Rerum Novarum (1891). That, as I’ve tried to show, is a dreadful mistake. Pope Leo considered it his duty to apply to current concerns the constant teaching of the Church and of the word of God. Like Thomas Aquinas, the study of whose works he promoted vigorously, he would have considered “originality” a vice, not a virtue. Perhaps we are misled by the title, Rerum Novarum. In our anti-society of rapacious consumption of the “new” and “improved,” and the unease instilled in us by mass...

The next four years will not be good ones for practicing Catholics or, for that matter, anyone who subscribes to Judeo-Christian beliefs. Iâ€™m certain that in a short time from now, Catholics will look upon the recent â€śfiscal cliffâ€ť scuffle as merely the prelude to the presidentâ€™s plan to impose his ideological will on the nation.Although Obama won with only 51 percent of the vote â€“ and is the first president re-elected to a second term receiving fewer total votes than in his first election â€“ he actually believes he received a huge mandate last November. He rejects the notion...

For the most part, American Catholics have wanted to be like other people. They arrived in America as immigrants from places where they had a definite (if sometimes lowly) position. They left that for a country where social positions were fluid, they would be held in contempt if they stayed as they were, and they could rise to the heights if they Americanized. So they became dedicated Americans. They were used to being part of the social whole, and that was the way to be part of it here. What they lost in security of position by moving to the...

Madrid, Spain, Jan 7, 2013 / 12:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A socialist government official in Andalusia, Spain, called for a local Catholic bishop to be “muzzled” for arguing that men and women are both different and complementary. Bishop Demetrio Fernandez of Cordoba should be silenced for leveling attacks against “real and effective equality between men and women,” charged Miguel Angel Vazquez, a member of the Socialist Party and spokesman for the Andalusian provincial government. In a Jan. 4 post on his personal blog, Vazquez labeled Bishop Fernandez “a true representative of religious fanaticism” and said that the prelate provokes “controversies...

A good illustration is in the public schools. This view is taught in our public schools exclusively -- by law. There is no other view that can be taught. I'll mention it a bit later, but by law there is no other view that can be taught. By law, in the public schools, the United States of America in 1982, legally there is only one view of reality that can be taught. I'll mention it a bit later, but there is only one view of reality that can be taught, and that is that the final reality is only material...

http://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/providence_god_in_control/providence The Psalmist asked, “Why do the wicked prosper, while the righteous suffer?” The prophet Habakkuk asked virtually the same question in his day as he witnessed his homeland overrun with the invading armies of the Chaldeans. Initially, from Habakkuk’s perspective, he did not see God’s hand in the suffering of his people. Where was the Judge of all the earth during this time of injustice, he wondered. Here Dr. Sproul explains how God’s providence and suffering go hand and hand.

Egypt’s new constitution “prepares the way for an Islamic caliphate”, according to the acting leader of Coptic Catholics, who is among three bishops to condemn the document as a fundamental attack on human rights. The bishops expressed their profound disappointment with the constitution signed into law on December 26, saying only extremist Muslims’ rights were guaranteed by the new document and that at particular risk were women, young people and religious minorities. Bishop Kyrillos William, administrator of the Coptic Catholic Patriarchate of Alexandria, said: “We were waiting for a constitution that represents the whole of Egypt but instead we have...

(Reuters) - France's President Francois Hollande has weighed this weekend into the war of words between his government and the Catholic Church over holding discussions in schools on the planned legalization of same-sex marriage. He defended Education Minister Vincent Peillon on Saturday for urging Catholic schools, which teach about one-fifth of all pupils in France, to stay neutral in the debate. Peillon's supporters and critics dominated the headlines and airwaves on Sunday, a week before a Church-backed protest in Paris that organizers say could draw as many as half a million people opposed to any change in traditional marriage. The...

(Reuters) - Pope Benedict said on Sunday that Roman Catholic leaders must have the courage to stand up to attacks by "intolerant agnosticism" prevalent in many countries. The pope and the Church have come under increased attack because of their opposition to homosexual marriage and women priests. The pope has repeatedly denounced what he says are attempts to push religion out of public debate. The 85-year-old pontiff celebrated Mass on the day Christians in the West mark the Epiphany, and ordained four new archbishops including his personal secretary. In a homily to about 10,000 people in St Peter's Basilica in...

Last weekend, Father Gabriel Nadaf, 39, a Greek Orthodox priest from Nazareth, challenged a boycott against him and attempted to enter the church there to recite a prayer and light a candle. He was accompanied by Israeli Border Police officers and supporters, who came to ensure his safe passage into the church. Nadaf was excommunicated by the Orthodox Church Council after he expressed his belief that Christian youth in Israel should fully integrate into Israeli society, serving in the IDF or in the National Service. Since then, he and others, like Father André Alamiya, have been the target of virulent...

When Eric Metaxas spoke last year at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., he used the opportunity to challenge his listeners. In his new book No Pressure, Mr. President: Real Faith in a Time of Crisis, he makes his remarks available to a broader audience and recounts the journey of a writer trying to be a Christian witness. KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: The e-book version of your book is titled “Jesus Hates Dead Religion.” How can you claim to know what Jesus hates? ERIC METAXAS: The Bible says that God hates what is evil. According to my sources, Jesus is...

The world view that the final reality is only material or energy shaped by pure chance, inevitably, (that's the next word I would bring to you ) mathematically -- with mathematical certainty -- brings forth all these other results which are in our country and in our society which have led to the breakdown in the country -- in society -- and which are its present sorrows. So, if you hold this other world view, you must realize that it is inevitable that we will come to the very sorrows of relativity and all these other things that are so...

This letter is a very sad example of what happens when our personal freedoms and liberties are taken away. America wasn’t built on this, readers, and we absolutely must share this to show people the impact the Obama administration is having on every-day Americans. When my family and I started our company 40 years ago, we were working out of a garage on a $600 bank loan, assembling miniature picture frames. Our first retail store wasn’t much bigger than most people’s living rooms, but we had faith that we would succeed if we lived and worked according to God‘s word....

Â As I contemplated Shin Dong-hyuk and his escape from North Korea last week, I also happened to be reading Ralph C. Woodsâ€™Â Flannery Oâ€™Connor and the Christ-Haunted South--an unintentionally apropos pairing. One of Woodâ€™s main theses is that Oâ€™Connor--the novelist, short story writer, and devout Catholic--preferred the excesses of fundamentalism, which at least takes God seriously enough to take him literally, to the bland â€ścivil religionâ€ť practiced by most Americans, including most Catholics. "Oâ€™Connor discerned that something deadly had occurred when national identity had been made to trump religious faithâ€ťâ€¦ â€ś[Her] objection to a blithe indifferentism concerning truth and error,...

The CEO of Hobby Lobby has penned a tragic letter about the loss of religious freedom and liberty in America. The Christian crafts company has been forced by the Obama administration to pay for drugs for its employees in their health care plan that may cause abortions. Doing so violates the religious freedom of the founders and owners of Hobby Lobby, but the firm has, so far, been unsuccessful in getting courts to give it an exemption while its lawsuit against the HHS mandate continues. Tens of thousands of Americans have committed to support the Christian crafts store Hobby Lobby...

The 77-year-old Muslim cleric as an evil man who spewed hateful words about his adopted country and funneled at least $50,000 to support the Pakistani Taliban terrorist organization...His goal, to help arm the Taliban militants ...

Lawrence O'Donnell ROME, January 3, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Readers may be surprised to hear that Jesus Christ was the first socialist; every word of every article in the Vatican newspaper is “virtually dictated” personally by Pope Benedict; every country in Europe – indeed in the whole world – is socialist; the Catholic Church “thrives” under socialist regimes; and Fidel Castro’s mass murdering regime is on a moral par with the Catholic Church because they both allegedly want to “eradicate” homosexuals. All of these assertions have come from the mouth of MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, who recorded a strange and confused 3.5...

This address was delivered by the late Dr. Schaeffer in 1982 at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is based on one of his books, which bears the same title. [Part 1 of 14] Christians, in the last 80 years or so, have only been seeing things as bits and pieces which have gradually begun to trouble them and others, instead of understanding that they are the natural outcome of a change from a Christian World View to a Humanistic one; things such as overpermissiveness, pornography, the problem of the public schools, the breakdown of the family,...

On the first day of 2013, Chicago's Cardinal Francis George issued a letter to priests state-wide, urging Catholics to inform their state legislators of their opposition to same-sex marriage, the legalization of which is to be introduced in the coming days. "Civil laws that establish 'same sex marriage' create a legal fiction," George wrote in a letter sent to priests on Jan. 1, according to the Chicago Tribune. "The State has no power to create something that nature itself tells us is impossible," George continued. "Good pastoral practice encourages families to accept all their children and not break relationships with...

We are approaching, in this series, Pope Leo XIII’s great encyclical Rerum Novarum, on the condition of the working classes. I’ve been maintaining that it is impossible to discuss Catholic Social Teaching without specifying what Catholics understand as a society. I’ve also insisted upon the wise dictum of Saint Thomas, that grace perfects nature, which alone suffices to instruct the attentive Catholic that to sever faith from civic life is artificial and unnatural. Now it’s time to look at two societies which the Pope holds up for our affection and admiration: the Christian family, and the Church. Far from seeing...

Chicago's Cardinal Francis George and his six auxiliary bishops officially entered Illinois' gay marriage fray Tuesday, issuing a letter that urges parishioners to contact state legislators and voice opposition to a legalization bill that could face a vote this week. "Civil laws that establish 'same-sex marriage' create a legal fiction," George and the bishops wrote in a letter sent to priests Tuesday. "The state has no power to create something that nature itself tells us is impossible." State Sen. Heather Steans, a Democrat from Chicago, said she plans to introduce the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act to legalize same-sex...

The term Â“social justiceÂ”â€¦ is the key term and concept of Catholic social teaching â€¦ with all the other aspects of the Churchâ€™s social doctrineÂ—the principle of subsidiarity, the just wage or the right to private propertyÂ—are related to, and rely, on the existence of social justice. The term Â“social justice,Â” though common enough today, is little understood by most of those who use itÂ—whether they consider themselves friends and practitioners of social justice, or they regard it as a suspect term of probably socialist origin. But the term does have a precise meaning. That meaning and the significance of...

(CNN)– The billionaire founder of Domino's Pizza has won a temporary court victory, with a federal judge blocking enforcement of part of the health care reform bill requiring most employers to provide a range of contraception and reproductive health services. Some business owners and their staff see that as a violation of their religious rights. Federal Judge Lawrence Zatkoff issued his order late Sunday, saying Thomas Monaghan had "shown that abiding by the mandate will substantially burden his exercise of religion." "The (federal) government has failed to satisfy its burden of showing that its actions were narrowly tailored to serve...

(Reuters) - A divided federal appeals court has temporarily barred the U.S. government from requiring an Illinois company to obtain insurance coverage for contraceptives, as mandated under the 2010 healthcare overhaul, after the owners objected on religious grounds. More than 40 lawsuits are challenging a requirement in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that requires most for-profit companies to offer workers insurance coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices and other birth control methods. Friday's 2-1 order by a panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago in favor of Cyril and Jane Korte was the second...

Governments have almost unlimited power but they don’t have unlimited authority. British author, G. K. Chesterton, had lunch with Alexander Woollcott at a London restaurant discussing various issues ending with the difference between authority and power. Chesterton opined, "If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatever." I affirm that the U.S. has great power but its authority is limited. Obama needs to be taught that lesson which seems to have escaped him...

An attorney for Hobby Lobby Stores said Thursday that the arts and crafts chain plans to defy a federal mandate requiring it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill, despite risking potential fines of up to $1.3 million per day. Hobby Lobby and religious book-seller Mardel Inc., which are owned by the same conservative Christian family, are suing to block part of the federal health care law that requires employee health care plans to provide insurance coverage for the morning-after pill and similar emergency contraception pills. The companies claim the mandate violates the religious beliefs...

Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Israel, Dec 27, 2012 / 04:11 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Fouad Twal, has issued a Christmas message that both laments the violence and refugee situation in the Middle East and calls on Christians to live out their faith. â€śThe joy of Christmas is overshadowed by the staggering violence in Syria,â€ť he said Dec. 20. He noted the Catholic Churchâ€™s work to assist 250,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan, saying this shows the Church is â€śfull of compassion for the victims.â€ť Conflict between rebel forces and the Syrian government has...

Every year around Christmas and Easter, the usual hyenas emerge from the brush to worry at the Churchâ€™s heels. This year, as a little gift to the Christ Child, the National Catholic Reporter (aka Fishwrap) has teamed up with an entity Iâ€™ve never heard of, the Global Post, to excrete a series of articles which have no other purpose than to harm the Church through distortion of facts.The Global Post, which is funded by the Ford Foundation, which also funds anti-Catholic groups such as â€śCatholics For Choiceâ€ś, and which has board over-lap with Planned Parenthood, and Fishwrap are teamed up...

Calvin (far right) with his brothers, Rogers and Joash Imagine a Kenyan AIDS orphan living in a mud hut with his two brothers and walking several miles to school on an empty stomach. After the devastating loss of both of his parents, facing daily grinding poverty, would he have any energy left to dream of a better future? This boy is not imaginary; his name is Calvin and I know him well because during his adolescence, he read a novel about a Kenyan boy who went to school in the United States. Even though the story was fiction, it planted...

The Obama administration’s HHS mandate may force the Catholic Little Sisters of the Poor to cease their U.S. operations, according to Sister Constance Carolyn Veit, the religious order’s communications director.The Little Sisters currently provide group homes and daily care for the elderly poor in 30 U.S. cities.Sister Constance told The Daily Caller that the Little Sisters may not qualify for a religious exemption from ObamaCare’s requirement that employers provide coverage for contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-causing drugs free of charge to female workers.“We are not exempt from the [ObamaCare] mandate because we neither serve nor employ a predominantly Catholic population,” Constance...

The armies of allah are CONVERGING RIGHT NOW towards Damascus. The sole obstacle is the Assad régime. Once Assad is down (and he will be, it’s only a matter of time: the Obama régime, al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia are ALL against Assad), the armies of allah will mobilize in order to raid JERUSALEM. Should we not mobilize? Should we not be trying urgently to mobilize the antisemitic "Christians" among us, with the use of Reason, to become friends of the Jewish People -- in order to get their support in the CRUSADE to protect JERUSALEM? Abram...